ROCKY HILL >> The man of the hour at the understated debate between Republican gubernatorial candidates Tom Foley and state Senate Minority Leader John McKinney wasn’t even in the room.

Gov. Dannel P. Malloy was invited to the Thursday event sponsored by Associated Builders and Contractors, but apparently never responded, according to the organizers.

It was the first one-on-one matchup between the two Republicans heading toward the Aug. 12 primary, after the third contender, Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton, dropped out.

The harshest criticism was about the governor’s first five program where millions are being bonded to convince businesses to come or stay in Connecticut, while some are just moving from one town to another.

Foley said Malloy is “bribing” people to stay here “because the state is anti-business. That’s like stepping on the accelerator and the brake at the same time. Let’s just get our foot off the brake.”

Foley said he knows some of the people at the hedge fund, Bridgewater, which is getting money from the state to move to another town.

“It scares me to death that Gov. Malloy or anybody in his administration is negotiating with these people ... they will get completely ripped off, which I think they did,” he said.

McKinney said he also will not write checks to corporations to stay here. He agreed with Foley that the CEO of the company, who he said earns over $12 billion “negotiating with Dan Malloy is a mismatch of epic proportions.”

McKinney and Foley had similar positions on the issues in the low-key exchange between the two, where at one point McKinney said either one of them would make a better governor than Malloy, making it probably the friendliest political contest ever in Connecticut.

While both of them agreed the state has a spending problem rather than a revenue problem, Foley said he would hold discretionary spending flat, and make up the necessary savings through efficiencies, better negotiating with providers on health care, but not opening up contracts with workers.

The Greenwich businessman said as one of the largest consumers of health care, the state is not using the power it has to properly lower costs.

McKinney went further than that.

He wants the state to transition to the private sector providing social services, rather than state employees. He also said the contracts with state workers have to be opened up as another factor in finding some $900 million in savings to offset the debt and other obligations that Connecticut is mandated to pay.

The health care and pension contracts are in place until 2022, but McKinney said workers have to make bigger contributions to these expenses before that.

“We have crippling unfunded pensions. We need to restructure our relationships with our employees,” he said to the friendly crowd of about 40 people.

The state is projected to have a $2.8 billion deficit in the next two fiscal years, which both men and Malloy have said they can handle without a tax increase.

Foley, in the 80-minute exchange, said there are too many mandates on the cities and towns, which are making it difficult for them to control their own destinies. He said he favors allowing them to have more flexibility in raising revenue.

The candidates said there should be a seven-year limit on when contractors who do public work can be sued, that it shouldn’t be open ended.

On highway tolls, Foley would not be in favor of them as a revenue source. But he would be willing to look at them if they helped mitigate congestion by making it more attractive to travel on off-peak hours.

McKinney said congestion pricing would only dump traffic on local roads and he would not approve of tolls under any circumstances. Both candidates agreed that Connecticut gas taxes are too high and also are not transparent.

The minority leader disagreed with Malloy’s executive orders, but said he would not repeal them as two wrongs never make a right.

Foley wasn’t sure what they were, but felt he likely would repeal them.

Foley, who lost to Malloy in 2010 by only 6,404 votes, said the he would get rid of the business entity tax, repeal all fees that cost more to collect than their revenue, which he said the Yankee Institute estimates total about 200 levies.

McKinney said his son will soon go off to college and the statistics say he is not coming back to Connecticut because of the lack of opportunities here where he said there is no long-term economic policy.

“We have crippling unfunded pensions. We need to restructure our relationships with our employees,” he said.

Both candidates pledged not to raid the transportation fund, which they said Malloy did for a total of $200 million since he got elected in 2010. Both dismissed the New Britain busway, which comes on line when the next governor takes over, as a waste of money.

Foley said Malloy agreed to support it so he would have something to point to when it came to the November 2014 election.

McKinney said the annual operating subsidy will be in the millions and the state’s contribution should have been used for railroad bridges.

As they have stated before, both are critical of the state’s implementation of the Common Core Standards.

Foley said he would start an A-F evaluation system for the schools and let the successful ones keep their own methods of evaluating teachers, while concentrating on those schools that are failing. “Don’t create a problem by fixing something that is not broken,” he said.

“I don’t believe in a one size fits all approach or top down decisions,” McKinney said.

As governor, McKinney said he would appoint a commissioner of education who had teaching or administrative experience and has called for the resignation of Commissioner Stefan Pryor, who now holds that position.

McKinney criticized Malloy for waiting until now to send money to the schools to prepare properly for the standards and accused him of doing it for political reasons.

They both agreed that the Small Business Express program was being gamed and the state was not performing the necessary due diligence.

The Republican contenders also agreed that raising the minimum wage does not lift people out of poverty, but rather only negatively impacts businesses and job creation.

They have agreed to two televised debates before the Aug. 12 primary. There will be one on July 17 at the Hartford Courant, which will be taped for broadcast on July 20. The last one will be on Aug. 10 on a Sunday at 8 a.m. at Channel 8 in New Haven. Thursday’s debate was hosted by Christine Stuart of Ct News Junkie.